New Cherry Board

Here’s one of the many boards sawn from four logs of the dying cherry tree taken from my property. We QS’d two of them and flat sawed the other two for door panels. It took over three hours to saw the four logs and load them onto a long-bed pickup and a small trailer. Then it took another three hours to unload it all and sticker it in a barn to air dry.

QS’ing my way doesn’t turn out so wasteful, and I’ve taught two sawyers how to do this. Once you see QS cherry, you won’t want flat sawn face frames any more.

Can you see the sides of a Greene and Greene style grandfather clock hiding in this board? I’m standing on two more just like it, sawn from the middle of the log. Yes, the pith is problematic, but with a board this wide, I’ll rip out the pith and have two perfectly QSawn boards for the sides. I have more logs which I will sell. They are from higher up the trunk and are not so big. The largest remaining is 17 inches in diameter and 8 feet long. I also have three crotches, one of which is 18 inches at the bottom.

MaroonGoon, the lower log on the tree flared out to 28 inches where it was cut from the stump. It was about 24 inches at the top end of the eight-foot log. The next log narrowed to 22 inches, and so on. After ripping away the pith from the board shown, I should get at least 10-inch boards of perfectly quarter sawn cherry.

Herb C, I also quarter sawed sycamore when I did this cherry. It looks a little like lacewood and there’s a very attractive line between the sapwood and heartwood. I had one sycamore log that was spalted and it’s really wild.